At the Colosseum with Meg!
This is at the top of the Vatican, but more specifically, St. Peter's Basilica. 
The Cupola of St. Peter's. The staircase winding up to it was ridiculous! For parts of the climb, I had to lean over from my hips to the side, which is not the most comfortable way to ascend stairs. 
Finally a sunny day in Zurich, Switzerland. 
Luzern (Lucerne), Switzerland, about an hour outside of Zurich. 
Erin and me outside of Malahide Castle in Dublin, Ireland. The shadow is of a kid named Bryan who we met there, who happens to be studying abroad in Rome. 
European Parliament! This is the picture that got me and two of my friends lost and separated from our group inside the European Union. We had quite the time finding our way back!Okay, yes. It's been well over a month since my last blog. Now there is so much to say, I'm just going to rip off the band-aid, breeze through it, and move on. The pictures above are in reverse order from how they actually happened (have I mentioned that I hate the blogspot picture thingy??), but at least they loaded! Wahoo! In the past month and a half, I went on my long study tour to Brussels, Belgium, the Hague, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, went to Dublin, Zurich, Luzern, and Rome on my travel break, experienced the election Danish-style, and all other sorts of things upon my return to Copenhagen.
Long study tour was a blast, and I love my program. The bulk of our time was spent in Brussels, because that is where the European Union is located. We had visits with representatives from the European Council, Commission, and Parliament, and also had to go off into Brussels on our own in small groups to interview lobbyist groups. My visit was at the Women's Lobby group, the largest representative of women's interest in the EU, which was really cool. We also visited NATO headquarters, which was probably my favorite academic visit. I realize I'm in a European Politics course, but it was great to also see how the US fits in with the international cooperation of Brussels.
Academics aside, I loved Brussels because I got to see my friend Kerice from high school, who is studying abroad there. I got a way different feel for the city than the rest of my class. But as a class, we did discover Delirium, the famed bar of Brussels. This place had over 2,000 beers on tap. It was ridiculous. And these weren't pansy beers either. I don't know too terribly much about beer, but I'm told that normal beer is about 3-4% alcohol. Belgian beer averages about 13-16% alcohol. The morning after my entire program partied it up at Delirium (and some moved across the street to the absinthe bar), we had an early morning bike tour of Brussels. May I just say that that was not a smart idea a) because Brussels, unlike Copenhagen, is NOT a bike friendly city. Even those of us who weren't having specific issues were mildly terrified the whole time. And b) the night before was not conducive to coordination. Jacob, our teacher, (who actually fell off his bike), has assured us that the bike tour will not appear on the agenda for subsequent DIS tours.
In the Hague, we visited the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), run by the UN. On the way there passed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which we were all way bummed we didn't get to go to as well. At the ICTY we talked to one of the prosecutors, and I'm pretty sure all the girls in the class wanted to be her. Her name was April, and she went to school at UT (boo) and SMU (yay!), had a really strong Texas accent, she was only in her 30s, and could basically kick butt in the international courts. We were all a little upset because we were supposed to sit in on some court action, but the case got moved, so we just got a tour instead.
Amsterdam was only a quick visit, just for fun. I went to the Anne Frank house, and got a Dutch pancake, then headed to the Red Light District with my friends. We didn't actually partake in any of the activities offered there, but it was definitely an experience just to walk up and down the canals in that particular district.
After an 18 hour turn around in Copenhagen, I headed off on travel break with my friend Erin. Dublin was our first stop, and Ireland is my absolute favorite. This was my second visit, and it definitely was not my last. Our hostel (both of our first real hostel experience) was amazing, and right in the thicke of everything. I think we saw just about everything thanks to the hop-on-hop-off tour, but the best part was listening to traditional Irish music at a pub one night. We were right up at the front, and had quite the rapport going on with the band, mainly because I started a round of clapping, when the crowd was being really boring, and then I requested an Irish song ("Tell My Ma," which I only know thanks to Ms. Duck), after the lead singer asked for audience requests for the billionth time, and no one responded. And afterwards, we went to another pub with some real live Irish people, Joe and Callum, so that was pretty exciting.
Switzerland was great, mainly because Erin and I befriended an Australian kid named James, who joined us on a day trip to Luzern (Lucerne). Zurich was nice, but Luzern felt much more like a little Swiss town.
Italy. What is there to say. Erin and I had gone our separate ways for the final week of break, and this is what I learned: Italian train workers suck. I met a very nice kid from Wisconsin who had to help me find my hostel as a result of the train workers sucking. I got to see my friend Meg (YAY!!!!!), but then we got caught in a torrential downpour (NO!!!!!!) that soaked us through to our skin, so we could not make it to our plans with the nice Wisconsin kid. The Vatican is amazing to see, but also really scary/intimidating for those (like me) who are not of the Catholic faith. The man at the hostel was really creepy, and liked me a little too much for comfort. The piazzas are crazy (in a good way), and are probably crazier without all the rain. In a nut shell, I'm glad I got to see Rome, but it is so not the city for me. I was beyond relieved when I got back to the order of Copenhagen.
The week back from break was completely scattered. Everyone's sleep schedule was thrown way off, even more so from all night election parties that Tuesday, and a good chunk of my school was missing thanks to Sterling Airlines, which shut down suddenly thanks to the economic crisis, which left tons of people stranded. The Danish people were all overjoyed at the election results, as was I, and that week was basic merriment all around. My week was further scattered because Jesper wasn't home, and we had a 14-year-old girl from the Netherlands staying with us as a part of some EU project that Anne's involved in, so Tinne was pretty much freaking out that whole week.
I also got to experience a HUGE Danish tradition: the release of Tuborg Julbyrg, or the Christmas beer. On Friday, November 7th, at exactly 8:59 pm, blue trucks rumbled away from the Tuborg factory on their way to spread Christmas cheer (and Christmas beer) to every bar in town. Almost all the bars were decorated for Christmas, and all of them were playing Christmas music. A truck would pull up, the back would open, and there would be a whole flock of people dressed in blue Christmas outfits. The girls were playing Christmas music from stereos, and passing things like stickers out, and then would dance into the bar alongside all the guys carrying in cases of beer. It was absolutely hysterical to watch. The trucks were even covered in soap suds to make it look like they were snow-covered.
Enter the lost week. I was really sick, and have no clue what went on that week.
Last week Lillian visited from Florence, where she's studying abroad. We went to Tivoli with a whole group of my EPS friends. I think Tivoli is really my favorite thing in Copenhagen. It was completely decorated for Christmas, and then it started to snow. It was beyond perfection. I'm just heartsick though, because I forgot my camera at home, because I thought we'd get back to my house between my last class and Tivoli, but we didn't. Oh well, c'est la vie. The next day we went to Lund, Sweden, which is just a tiny little Swedish town, but still fun to see. It's only about an hour and fifteen minutes away from Kobenhavn H (central station), and it was even more snowy than Copenhagen, and looked like an old fashioned Christmas card.
Thursday was Thanksgiving, and I got to celebrate it for real! Tinne is in this math dinner club thing with some fellow math professors, and it was her turn to host on Thursday. I convinced her to do a Thanksgiving dinner, and it was a smash success! I had found this store in Copenhagen that had some random American things, like turkeys, and cranberry sauce, and Stove Top stuffing, and I made a pumpkin pie. It was so bizarre to have to go to class that day, but it was also amazing to tell the story of Thanksgiving to all these 40-something Danish math professors.
This weekend was exciting because on Friday my family and I went out to eat, which is a big deal here because it's so expensive. All the girls got good teacher-parent conference reports, so as is the tradition, we went to a Chinese restaurant to celebrate. Yesterday was Ida's gymnastics competition, and also Mette's 18th birthday party. I spent a large portion of the night hiding out in my room, because there were over 30 people here, all speaking Danish (clearly), so it was a little overwhelming, but still fun.
Phew!! I think that's a little bit of everything! I'm in my home stretch here, so I plan on doing quite a few more blogs, because there is quite a bit going on right now! I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving!
